iffy about a new camera

i just got a new video camera with full hd and all this shit, but when i film and put it on to the computer, its atually really bad quality.. its a memory camera too, no cassette. i dont know if i hae to convert it a certain way or the computer cant run the hd or what,, anything?
 
Alot of times a video camera can come from the store highly defectilve, and unable to produce good footage. You can check for this problem by looking at the special code number on the box. It's the one next to the dollar sign.

If your camera has warning codes such as AVCHD, or a 3 digit code number, It will fail in all scenarios.
 
I think the point SinEater was getting at it that you've given us nothing to go by. You could have just wrote "Camera bad quality. Why?" and everybody would have been able to help just as much.

What's bad about the quality? Elaborate. Are your shots dark? Overexposed? Blury? Are you using the camera right? Is it set up right? Does the footage look okay on the camera, only 'bad' on the computer? How old is your computer? What spec? Is it capable of playing back HD footage?

There are so many possiblities, we need more info!
 
Might be that your computer is unable to handle the footage, if the footage is AVCHD.

Try using an intermediate codec like Cinefrom's Neoscene (available to try for free).

Convert your footage with Neoscene, then put the converted footage into Vegas and see if you get better results.
 
Keep in mind that video cameras under a couple grand all look terrible. That's what I was trying to say earlier. I bought a $1600 sony cam once, and got the footage processed perfectly, and it looked so terrible that I never used it again.

A 5d is probably your best bet for an inexpensive video camera. I'm guessing that if you don't even know what you're camera is called, it's cheap. When you spend 8 grand on an EX-1 you remember the name.

(footage still no good)

You can get an F3 now for 13,300. It's the cheapest camera I've ever seen produce even TV quality footage.
 
If you change the settings... That might help. I used a Canon VIXIA HF200 once when one of the Panasonic AG-HMC-150 was in the shop. No one noticed... Broadcast is 1080i, so I guess you could say I cheated, but it was used on a two shot, so it's different lighting anyways. Like I always say to interns and trainees. It's not what you have, but how you use it. I made a trainee do a story using only a flip SD, and windows movie maker. One of the best stories from a trainee ever. Then I deleted it because that's what I do.
 
A great alternative for beginning filmmakers is to buy used SD cameras. If you are looking for nice looking footage, Really Color space and compression are more important than resolution.

Buffy the Vampire slayer was filmed in 720x480, And yet the show looks better than any 1080p prosumer footage I've ever seen. People talk about resolution like it's the end all, because that's how the manufacturers advertise it. Sure, it makes a difference, but I'd rather have a lower res camera with high color space than the opposite.

don't mean to get you down about your new camera, it's just that I had the same experience you did, and sat there for a month trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Then I bought a different camera, and everything was fine.
 
true thank you for all the info.. yeah my camera isnt the most expensive but i thought it would get the job done, i mean its alright. and the problem is that its not that good of quality.. and some shots do look alright, then others are just too shitty and the color is all wierd. the color is usually pretty vibrant, just the quality again is bad.. i was using an old computer d just got a new laptop that can run full hd and all that so im going to try it out on this, hopefully it gets rendered better
 
i also hate the internal memory.. its such a hassle i have to put it on the computer, render is in vegas (or w.e program im using) and then use it and waiting all that time for not that good of footage anyways..
 
A great alternative for beginning filmmakers is to buy used SD cameras. If you are looking for nice looking footage, Really Color space and compression are more important than resolution.

Buffy the Vampire slayer was filmed in 720x480, And yet the show looks better than any 1080p prosumer footage I've ever seen. People talk about resolution like it's the end all, because that's how the manufacturers advertise it. Sure, it makes a difference, but I'd rather have a lower res camera with high color space than the opposite.
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I agree resolution isn't the alpha and omega of specs, and some of the Canon DSLR's aren't even true HD cams because they rely on electronic sharpening but I disagree that a good SD camera is something anyone should buy -- unless you're doing broadcast in a developing country. Shows like Buffy look good because they're shot on high end SD formats like Digibeta that in their day cost north of $75,000. You can get a worn body for a few grand perhaps but by the time you get a 2/3rds lens, batteries, media, a massive tripod , a big case, you're into a lot of money. And a broadcast camera, a real one, isn't that easy to operate. You'll also, in most cases, get locked in to a 4:3 format.

And I cannot comment much on Digibeta, but I have a lot of experience with Beta Cam, which Digibeta supplanted in broadcast. I used to mix Betacam footage with downrezzed JVC HD100 (a $6,000 720p camera) footage and properly downrezzed HD100 looked better, though the Betacam seemed to pull better keys.
 
You're probably right Brian, I'm just very attuned to color, so weak color always ruins it for me. I've seen some used betacams on craigslist for pretty cheap though. Lenses, well, that's another story, those suckers just dont devalue. On the flipside, theyre a great investment. SD is obviously not a publishable format any more, but for someone learning, I think in many ways a 444 SD would be a more inspirational tool. And many can film wide in the NTSC widescreen standard.
 
You're probably right Brian, I'm just very attuned to color, so weak color always ruins it for me. .

You got me there, the color on those old beta cams and digi betas pops, that's probably why they were so much easier to key with. Thankfully, keying software has improved a lot which makes keying in the thin color space easier.
 
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